Love this fish photogenic traits, males and females will pose and slowly swim in front of the camera.
Paratilapia sp Andapa face profile
- Thread starter ciclasoman
- Start date
Paratilapia is not an African fish (as are most Tilapia, with the exception of those endemic to the mideast, some also in separate genera such as Iranoocichla, from Iran, or Tristramella from Israel), it is from the island of Madagascar.
This is not trivial, as India and Madagascar were combined more recently than Madagascar and Africa, and probably why the Madagascan and Indian cichlids seem to be much more closely related than to Africans.
The genus Paratilapia, although may come from a same very distant ancestor, before Madagascar was separated from Africa (as S American and Africa were part of a super continent), has spent enough millennia separated to have had it develop its own distinct characteristics, enough to warrant its separate genus status.
One such difference, beyond the distinct physical characteristics
Paratilapia lay grape like clusters of hanging eggs.
Tilapines, put down flat plaques of adhesive eggs.
Paratilapia
Tilapia (now Coptodon) zillii
This is not trivial, as India and Madagascar were combined more recently than Madagascar and Africa, and probably why the Madagascan and Indian cichlids seem to be much more closely related than to Africans.
The genus Paratilapia, although may come from a same very distant ancestor, before Madagascar was separated from Africa (as S American and Africa were part of a super continent), has spent enough millennia separated to have had it develop its own distinct characteristics, enough to warrant its separate genus status.
One such difference, beyond the distinct physical characteristics
Paratilapia lay grape like clusters of hanging eggs.
Tilapines, put down flat plaques of adhesive eggs.
Paratilapia
Tilapia (now Coptodon) zillii
As an aside, compare the outward similarities of the Indian genus Etroplus with the Madagascan genus, Paretroplus. But beyond the outward, both of these genera have a complex hearing mechanism, thought to be developed when India and Madagascar were combined, and may be so primitive, was phased out by evolution of African, and new world cichlids, and yes, quite different from all those other cichlids.
This was suggested and explained in the TV documentary, Rise of the Continents, Eurasia.
This was suggested and explained in the TV documentary, Rise of the Continents, Eurasia.
